Friends familiar with history know that in china's ancient society, whether it is the royal emperor or the ordinary people's families, the primogeniture system is prevalent, generally in a family, the status of the eldest son is superior to other brothers, and also has a great resource advantage.
For example, in the Jin Dynasty, although Sima Zheng was a typical "idiot", he was able to inherit the throne because he was the eldest son of a concubine, and throughout thousands of years of history, such examples abounded, but before the establishment of this system, there was a system that was completely contrary to this system, that is, "killing the first son", that is, killing the first child born in the family.
Image: Stills of giving birth to a child
First, a "popular" custom
1. Records in historical materials
According to historical records, this is a custom that became popular very early, for example, in the book "Mozi", it is mentioned that there is a small country in the east of the Yue Kingdom, and the first child born in that place will be brutally killed by each family, and even be eaten, which is simply jaw-dropping.
Coincidentally, a similar event is recorded in the "Lu Qing" article in "Mozi", which occurred in the southern region of the Chu Kingdom, where there is a habit of cannibalism, but this is not casual eating, it must be the first child in the family to be eaten, this custom also has a strange name called "YiDi", and the child's meat will also be sacrificed to the tribal leader or the monarch of the country, which is more shocking.
If the record in the Mozi alone is not enough to believe, then there is a record of the same thing in the Book of later Han in the Zhengshi, which mentions that the Wuhu people also had the custom of killing the head, and they would also present part of it to the monarch according to the "quality" after cooking the meat.
The Book of Han also mentions that there is also this custom among the Qianghu tribes in the northwest region, in order to make the blood of the entire family more pure, which has a certain religious superstition.
Image: Stills of a child being brutally killed
2. The Central Plains also existed
Friends who see here may say that most of the people who have the habit of killing their heads recorded in these historical materials are tribes in some frontier areas with backward civilization, which does not mean that the rich and civilized Central Plains region is also the same, but the truth may surprise you. In the Zhuangzi, there is a record of Yao killing the eldest son, and there is also an interpretation of this matter.
In addition to Yao doing this, until the early Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou people also had the same custom, in the "Fengshen Yanyi" Chinese Wang Jichang once ate his son's flesh, of course, this is the novelist's deliberate interpretation of the letter can not be true, but the eaten Boyikao, as the eldest son of King Wen is real in history, but I don't know what reason was not established as the heir.
Although the matter of King Wen's eating son was fabricated, and the King of Shangyi carried the "black cauldron", this terrible plot is estimated to have existed in history.
In addition, some Chinese language experts believe that the word "Meng" has a unique meaning when it was created after research.
It is actually a vivid portrayal of this cruel custom in ancient times, because the first half of the word is a "son", and the lower part is a vessel for holding things, which is a typical ideographic character, and in ancient times, "Meng" also had the meaning of "first", "beginning" and "long".
Image from the Internet: the text "Meng"
Second, the origin of the custom of "killing the first son"
1. The inevitable result of social transformation
Why was there such a custom in ancient societies? Later scholars have also conducted relevant research on this, and the opinions given are different, and the general and more common explanation is that the purpose of this is to ensure the purity of their family lineage and ensure that the children must be their own.
It is naturally strange for us to look at it from the current point of view, but in that special period of transformation from matriarchal clan society to patrilineal clan society, this bloody and cruel system was recognized, and it was understandable.
Image: Stills of giving birth
In matriarchal societies, women occupy an extremely important leading position in the group, a woman will produce many offspring with different men, and many times the children born to women will not know who the biological father is.
With the change of the times and the continuous development of civilization, the patriarchy began to rise and soon occupy an important position in society, and the previous marriage system will undoubtedly face collapse and collapse.
But this requires a relatively long process, and during this period, women will still have relationships with many men before marriage, and the first child born to a woman after marriage will most likely not be her own flesh and blood. In order to solve this problem, the patriarchal family will kill the first child born, which slowly forms the custom of "killing the first son".
Picture: Stills of a mother holding a newborn child
2. Why do you want to share food?
If "killing the first son" was the inevitable result of the transformation of the social system and the limitations of civilization at that time, then the plot of killing the first child and eating it was somewhat unacceptable, so what was the reason for this? In fact, this was also a custom in that special period, called "sacrifice of faith".
In fact, this custom is not unique to Chinese society, and similar customs have appeared in early civilizations around the world, such as people sacrificing the latest harvest of grain or hunted animals to the gods they believe in so that they can be sheltered in the future.
This custom or ritual also has a special term in China called "tasting". So what happens to these sacrifices after the sacrifice is completed? One of the most common ways at this time is for everyone to eat separately, because in the eyes of the ancients, the food sacrificed was blessed with divine power, not ordinary food.
Everyone eats separately according to status, and can get the blessing of the gods, which has slowly become a symbol of status, so the process and purpose of applying this ancient custom to the killing of the first son are clear at a glance.
Image: Stills of food sacrificed
These slain children will be sacrificed by the family as a sacrificial object to various ghosts and gods, and after the ceremony, they will be distributed to the aristocratic class with a higher status than themselves, which is a bad habit under the low-end civilization, inheriting the worship of the ancestors of the gods and ghosts in primitive society.
In addition, this matter is very normal in the eyes of everyone, and even think that this practice will be blessed by the gods, and the future children will be healthy and brave, and it has to be said that in primitive society, people's emotional awareness is very weak, which makes people sigh.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!